Beginning Professions Part 1: Combat

Here's a link to all the professions in Eve today.

Because most MMO players want to kill and blow things up first and foremost, let's talk about the starting combat professions right now.

Combat Related Professions (These are professions, not types of combatants. Types will be covered later)

Soldier - The four main factions of New Eden all have military forces that can always use one more pod-pilot. These mission are dangerous and the opposition won't like what you're doing, but the pay is good.
Level: Intermediate
Related to: PvP, Factional warfare
Key skills: all combat related, PvP specialization, some mission elements
Runner - People need things done (including NPC's), and runners are the ones to get them taken care of. The pay is better the more you're liked.

Pirate - Some people are content following the rules of society. Others would rather not do the hard work. Pirate prey on the weak and unprepared. They earn their money through theft and slaughter, but the risk of being caught is great.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Beginner
Related to: PvP
Key skills: all combat related
Related professions: Anti-Pirate, Bounty Hunter, Mercenary, Mission Runner, Miner,
Every society has its criminal Element. Pirates represent that facet of society. Ruthlessly exploiting combat prowess to extort, ransom, or simply annihilate other capsuleers for profit or pleasure.
Pirates use varying tactics depending on the location, situation, and their skills. Above all, a pirate must be fearless, and willing to make sacrifices in the name of carnage and destruction.

Runner - People need things done (including NPC's), and runners are the ones to get them taken care of. The pay is better the more you're liked.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Beginner
Related to: Agents, Missions, PvE
Key skills: all combat related and Social
The many NPC Factional Corporations in EVE all have their own interests in space. When their own forces are occupied elsewhere, or when a job needs doing that requires a discrete outsider, they use their Agents to hire help from the Capsule community, and authorize large payments for results.
Agents missions form the majority of the PvE combat content in EVE, and are a good way to get stuck into to some on-demand starship combat. Agents also offer courier missions, and some conduct research, with the eventual aim of giving out valuable blueprints for production.

'Ratter - There are just as many 'rats (NPC's) in High security (1.0-0.5) space as there are civil folk. A 'Ratter takes care of the 'rats occupying high sec space, places where the factions and CONCORD can't find. There are some nice finds in some of these "complexes" and the 'Ratters profit from them.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Intermediate
Related to: PvE
Key skills: all combat related
Similar to runners, ratters do PvE combat, but unlike runners payout comes in the form of high-end gear and equipment from enemies. The payoff comes from effectively free upgrades and money from the sales of the found equipment.

Anti-Pirate - Low security (0.4-0.1) space is a hive for pirate (PC's) scum and the Anti-Pirate wouldn't have it any other way. Profiting from the pirate's spoils and bounty's may not be the method for these people's ideology but it certainly helps.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Beginner possible but intermediate to advanced highly recommended.
Related to: Pirates. PvP
Key skills: all combat related, PvP specialization
Related professions: Bounty Hunter, Pirate
Some Anti-Pirates consider themselves driven by ideology, not bounties. In any case, for all practical intents and purposes, see Bounty Hunter profession. For the rest, read on :)
The Anti-Pirate Profession bears enormous risks. Why is doing the right thing always so damn difficult. Why is it that so few of us find the courage to fight for the unpunished injustices of our universe? Should I fail at my task, the tragedy will not be in my own death, but in the fact that my prey will continue to live out their wretched, despicable existence.
“It is said that cowardice lurks behind power; that every tyrant fears the day when others learn where the source of real power lies. What better way for a tyrant to hide that truth than by claiming absolute authority and threatening absolute ruin to those who question them!"
The art of war is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
"I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form, even if all the books are destroyed. That goal, is the real goal as far as I am concerned." ...Geminisceptre
Known to many in the Galaxy as the self proclaimed vigilante police force of the Eve Universe, the Anti-Pirate roams the stars seeking to crush his prey, Pirates, as they have so mercilessly crushed theirs so many times before. For many who enlist in the Anti-Pie ( as called by many ) profession they are called to it like a moth to the flame, for just as the old days of our ancient past, Their must be Cowboys to battle the Indians. The anti-pirate profession is perhaps one of the hardest of the Eve Universe, there are no medals, there is no recognition, there is nothing but death. Unlike Bounty Hunters, Anti-Pies seek not the money on the heads of their prey, they seek only the knowledge that deaths of all Pirates are as painful and slow as that of their unwary victims before them.

Bounty Hunter - Hunting down the bounties is the bread and butter for these people. Their sole purpose in life is to collect the bounties of criminals.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Beginner possible but intermediate to advanced highly recommended.
Related to: Pirates. PvP
Key skills: all combat related, PvP specialization
Related professions: Anti-Pirate, Pirate
Bounty hunters hunt down and kill other players that have bounties on their heads. For an ideaological version of this profession, see Anti-Pirate.
A locator agent that can help locate the targets is useful; bounty office on stations is another useful tool.
Nonetheless most bounty hunters agree that its hard to make any living out of bounties, and instead of seeking specific individuals they roam the same low-sec systems as their pray.
This profession requires very good PvP combat skills as the people being hunted are mostly pirates that have good knowledge of PvP and how to evade people who are after the bounties on them. That said, some bounty corps recruit newbies and train them on 'no implants/cheap frig/no named modules' policy. Expect to die. Often. Although that holds true even for experienced PvPers, too :)

Corp Fighter - Out in No Security space (0.0) law is what you make it. Corporations flock here to get a piece of space, to grow, and to become a powerful force skirting the factions. Large Alliances battle relentlessly to gain more ground and gain prominent control of the rim of New Eden.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Intermediate
Related to: Corporations, Alliances, PvP
Key skills: all combat related
Related professions: all combat related
People in a corporation who are soldiers dedicated to that specific corporation and it's alliance.

Mercenary - Soldier of Fortune. Mercenary's work for the highest bidder. Don't be fooled, even though these group will do anything for the right price, failure to pay can become a death sentence.
Specialization: Combat
Level: Intermediate
Related to: Corporations, Alliances, PvP
Key skills: all combat related
Related professions: all combat related
People who are hired to kill. Normally by a corporation or an Alliance which is a major player in Alliance politics.